Fear for Bangladesh as ‘Begums’ fight forfuture power

VOTERS are going to the polls in ­Bangladesh today in elections that have been marred by bloody street clashes.

ENLISTING: Bangladeshi police organise men and women applying to work as polling security [GETTY]

The opposition is boycotting the election, ­undermining its ­legitimacy and threatening its ability to stem a wave of political violence that killed at least 275 people last year.

The country’s politics have been dominated for two decades by the bitter rivalry between two women, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia, known as the “battling Begums”. Begum is a title for a Muslim woman of rank.

Opposition-led strikes and blockades have cut off much of the capital, Dhaka, in recent weeks and activists have torched vehicles belonging to motorists who defy the strikes.

Up to 50 schools and halls being used as polling stations have been burned down since Friday, TV reports said.

Hazera Begum, a teacher in Dhaka, said: “I want to go to vote, but I am afraid of violence. If the situation is normal and my neighbours go, I may go.”

The chaos could exacerbate economic woes in this deeply impoverished country of 160 million people and lead to radicalisation in a strategic pocket of South Asia, analysts say.

Ms Zia’s Nationalist Party had demanded that Prime Minister Hasina step down and ­appoint a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the election.

Ms Hasina refused, which means the election will mainly be a contest between candidates from the ruling Awami League and its allies, who are unchallenged in more than half of the 300 constituencies.

BEGUM: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has refused to accomodate the Bangladesh National Party [GETTY]

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A key factor in the latest dispute is ­Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest ­Islamic party and a coalition partner in Ms Zia’s 2001-2006 government

Bangladesh has a grim history of political violence, including the assassinations of two presidents and 19 failed coup attempts since its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Ms Hasina and Ms Zia, who herself served two terms as prime minister, spoke for the first time in years in an acrimonious telephone call in October. “I called you around noon. You didn’t pick up,” Ms Hasina said. Ms Zia responded: “You have to listen to me first.”

Last weekend, after Ms Zia was barred from leaving home to join a rally, she told ­police she would change the name of Gopalganj, Ms Hasina’s home district, if she won power. Her outburst was broadcast live on TV while roads around her property were heavily guarded.

On Friday, Ms Zia again urged people to boycott what she called “farcical” elections. “None at home and abroad will legitimise it,” she said.

A key factor in the latest dispute is ­Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest ­Islamic party and a coalition partner in Ms Zia’s 2001-2006 government. The execution last month of Abdul Quader Mollah, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader and a key member of the opposition, brought both celebrations and violent protests, revealing the deep polarisation of the country.

Mollah was the first person to be hanged for war crimes under an ­international tribunal set up to investigate atrocities during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators including Mollah, killed three million people in the nine-month war.

Bangladesh is trying to emerge from suffocating poverty and revive its £13billion clothing industry, which employs four million and provides clothing to Western retailers.

The EU, the US and the British Commonwealth said they would not send observers to the election.

The US State Department said: “We’re disappointed that the major political parties have not yet reached a consensus on a way to hold free, fair and credible elections.”